ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a language-for-specific-purposes course designed to develop the intercultural competence of medical students. The course was created in order to bridge the gap in medical students' instruction by the means available at Russian higher education institutions. Currently, intercultural communication, medical anthropology, or allied disciplines that examine health care in the cross-cultural perspective are not included in the compulsory part of Russian medical degree programmes. Conversely, by existing regulations, English is a required course for medical students across the country that could bring awareness of intercultural issues of the patient-doctor relationship. Students' majors, as stated in the official list of programmes approved by the Russian ministry of education and science, included general medicine, paediatrics, preventive medicine, and dentistry. The definition of intercultural competence offered in 1984 by Spitzberg and Cupach was used in this course. In search of a suitable intercultural competence model, sixty-six models created by scholars from thirteen countries were reviewed.
